The present invention generally relates to an improved method and system for sharing a single communication port. More specifically, it relates to a method and system for sharing a communication port between a plurality of servers through a communication mechanism.
It is becoming more common for components, such as peripheral devices, to be equipped with their own servers. When a network device is connected to a peripheral device that has its own server, both devices are generally considered as one device with one Internet Protocol (xe2x80x9cIPxe2x80x9d) address and one Uniform Resource Locator (xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d). As a result, each of the devices uses the same IP address and default communication port, but there is no way to differentiate which of the devices is being requested by a particular requesting browser.
A prior method is to allow only one of the servers to be used for that particular communication port. In other words, a server must be selected in advance for the connection with that communication port. As a result, other servers are not recognized and do not provide any services to the network. One problem with the prior method is that, although two servers are available for servicing, only one server is selected, resulting in ineffective use of the other server. Alternatively, the other servers can use additional protocols that are mapped to other communication ports. A problem with using an additional protocol is that the server cannot use the default communication port. However, most requesting browsers are programmed to look for the default communication port. Consequently, some requests can fail if the requesting browser does not know to look for another protocol mapped to an alternative communication port and not the default communication port.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and system for sharing a single shared communication port between a plurality of servers.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and system for sharing a single communication port that maps the servers to alternative available port.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and system for sharing a communication port that can service requests for multiple servers through a single shared communication ports.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and system for sharing a communication port that recognizes multiple servers on a single shared communication port.
Other objects, features and advantages will become apparent upon reading the detailed description set forth herein, in conjunction with the attached drawings.
The present invention generally relates to an improved method and system for sharing a communication port. More specifically, it relates to a method and system for sharing a communication port between a plurality of servers through a communication mechanism.
The present invention provides an improved method and system for sharing a single communication port between a plurality of servers through a communication mechanism. The method includes the steps of requesting access to the shared communication port by a first server, connecting the first server to the shared communication port by the communication mechanism, requesting access to the shared communication port by at least one other server, mapping the other server(s) to an available communication port by the communication mechanism, returning a status indicating a connection to the shared communication port to the other server(s) by the communication mechanism, and accepting additional requests for the shared communication port by the first server.